Young Folks Treasury, Volume 2 (of 12) eBook

Then suddenly his ears were opened and he heard the
sound of running water. And Perseus laughed for
joy, and leapt down the cliff and drank of the cool
water, and ate of the dates, and slept on the turf,
and leapt up and went forward again, but not toward
the north this time.

For he said, “Surely Athene hath sent me hither,
and will not have me go homeward yet. What if
there be another noble deed to be done before I see
the sunny hills of Hellas?”

So Perseus flew along the shore above the sea, and
at the dawn of a day he looked towards the cliffs.
At the water’s edge, under a black rock, he
saw a white image stand.

“This,” thought he, “must surely
be the statue of some sea-god. I will go near
and see.”

And he came near, but when he came it was no statue
he found, but a maiden of flesh and blood, for he
could see her tresses streaming in the breeze.
And as he came closer still, he could see how she shrank
and shivered when the waves sprinkled her with cold
salt spray.

Her arms were spread above her head and fastened to
the rock with chains of brass, and her head drooped
either with sleep or weariness or grief. But
now and then she looked up and wailed, and called her
mother.

Yet she did not see Perseus, for the cap of darkness
was on his head.

In his heart pity and indignation, Perseus drew near
and looked upon the maid. Her cheeks were darker
than his, and her hair was blue-black like a hyacinth.

Perseus thought, “I have never seen so beautiful
a maiden, no, not in all our isles. Surely she
is a king’s daughter. She is too fair, at
least, to have done any wrong. I will speak to
her,” and, lifting the magic hat from his head,
he flashed into her sight. She shrieked with
terror, but Perseus cried, “Do not fear me, fair
one. What cruel men have bound you? But
first I will set you free.”

And he tore at the fetters, but they were too strong
for him, while the maiden cried, “Touch me not.
I am a victim for the sea-gods. They will slay
you if you dare to set me free.”

“Let them try,” said Perseus, and drawing
his sword he cut through the brass as if it had been
flax.

“Now,” he said, “you belong to me,
and not to these sea-gods, whosoever they may be.”

But she only called the more on her mother. Then
he clasped her in his arms, and cried, “Where
are these sea-gods, cruel and unjust, who doom fair
maids to death? Let them measure their strength
against mine. But tell me, maiden, who you are,
and what dark fate brought you here.”

And she answered, weeping, “I am the daughter
of a King, and my mother is the Queen with the beautiful
tresses, and they call me Andromeda. I stand
here to atone for my mother’s sin, for she boasted
of me once that I was fairer than the Queen of the
Fishes. So she in her wrath sent the sea-floods
and wasted all the land. And now I must be devoured
by a sea-monster to atone for a sin which I never committed.”